Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Marine is more in the neighborhood of motorized RV in that we’re still seeing some price pressure, inflationary pressures from the propulsion or the motors within marine. I’d say everything else is pretty stable. I’d characterize it as stable, but the motors and the marine cause us to see some mild increases to ASP as we sit here today looking forward into our fiscal 2024. So that’s how I’d characterize some of the ASP moves, the discounting allowances. You have some other questions. I’ll ask Mike to take it from here and to add any other color that he sees as it relates to your question.

Michael Happe: Good morning, James. Say, I’ll address the affordability question in this way. We have decided to attack affordability through the introduction of new models that get our brands to potentially new and different price points or fill some gaps in our product lineups that we think are important from an affordability standpoint. And I’ll point to four quick examples. In fiscal ‘23, in the pontoon market under the Barletta brand, we introduced the Aria product, which expanded our total addressable market price point-wise from 40% to 70% of the market. So the Aria is the opening price point brand for the Barletta business. We showed at Open House the Winnebago branded access which is that particular brand’s entrance into the conventional travel trailer market with MSRP targets at $30,000 or below.

And then the Grand Design business has introduced two new brands, the influence, which is an affordable Fifth Wheel between our Reflection and Solitude models. And we’ve also introduced the Reflection 100, which is affordably priced below the traditional reflection Fifth Wheel line. And so as opposed to decontenting and dropping margin on existing SKUs, we’ve really chosen to go after affordability with our business through the introduction of new products. And we anticipate that we will be successful here as we go through our fiscal ‘24 year.

James Hardiman: That is extremely helpful. I’ve taken up a lot of your time, but I just wanted to clarify, Brian, it seems like the way that you’re talking about cost pressures and what that’s ultimately going to do to ASP. It seems like the goal through all of this is to ultimately hold margin as I think about the year rather than sort of giving up a little margin in an effort to spur demand? Is that accurate?

Bryan Hughes: Yes, I think that’s fair to characterize our efforts around profitability and margin are certainly in focus we will continue to react as we always do in-line with what Mike just said as well as it relates to that balance between margin profitability, performance and market share. And so that’s – that would be our intent and how I’d like to characterize it, James.

James Hardiman: Got it. Appreciate it guys.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Stember with ROTH MKM. Your line is open.

Scott Stember: Good morning, guys. And thanks for taking my questions.

Bryan Hughes: Good morning, Scott.

Scott Stember: In talking about the reluctance of dealers to take inventory outside of price, are there any other economic factors that the dealers are facing like floor plan costs, which are keeping them from ordering? Are they asking you guys to participate in some of that during the slower months?

Michael Happe: Scott, good morning. This is Mike. I think the dimension you touched on is probably one of the bigger elements as I think most of us in the industry know the dealers are facing higher floor plan costs due to higher interest rates, and that is certainly factoring into their attention to aging models, but also certainly the total amount of product that they are willing to carry. I do want to state, though, that on the RV side of our business, specifically, where we see this element most in play. We are pleased with where we stand with our inventory position as of today. And in fact, since the end of our fourth quarter, our RV field inventory is down probably another 1,500 units in gross between the end of August and this call this morning.